Ancestors

Written by Zach Weinersmith on 2024-11-23 at 01:51

Kinda mindblowing:

So the slowdown in productivity growth from 2007-2019 refers to a growth rate of about 1.5% a year. From 1945-1973 it was around 2.8%.

But like, 1.5% a year still means that in a single generation, an hour of work produces 45% more stuff! In 50 years it's more than double the stuff.

2.8% is much faster (double per generation) but still! By historical standards, 1.5% is zany fast.

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Toot

Written by Zach Weinersmith on 2024-11-23 at 01:52

Put another way, if a person is born today, and the "slow" rate holds for 75 years, when they are 75, a single hour of labor is triple the output of when they were born.

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Descendants

Written by Larry Garfield on 2024-11-23 at 03:14

@ZachWeinersmith My issue is what the heck "productivity" even means. "Do more faster" is not progress if the thing you're doing is bad.

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Written by Ronan on 2024-11-23 at 07:57

@Crell @ZachWeinersmith even if the thing you're producing is good, if the increase in productivity doesn't directly benefits the people (by earning 1.5% more, or having to work 1.5% less for the same result) but only the companies / bosses (by having the 1.5% as additional revenue or having to employ 1.5% less people), there is no point.

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Written by Swift on 2024-12-11 at 07:47

@Crell @ZachWeinersmith yes!

Also it's not good if having ever increasing "productivity" means you become more machine and less human, and make it harder/less acceptable for others to be more human.

If we could value NOT increasing £output while increasing quality of life, that would be worth celebrating. The only reason we need to increase output is because the economy is based on ever increasing, and yet we know this is stupid in a finite world.

I work in IT and never once has an efficiency increasing system I've made meant people relax and enjoy life more. We are fools.

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Written by Joshua on 2024-11-25 at 01:13

@ZachWeinersmith I don't think many people are that economically productive in their first year of life at any point in history

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